According to LIPA, many of the customers could go as long as until 9 p.m. until power is restored.

Story: Lightning struck a utility pole in Wading River as thunderstorms began rolling through the area about 12:40 p.m. Friday, dumping heavy rains with rates of 2 inches per hour, police and weather officials said.

“I saw the lines get hit,” said Jo Anne Freeborn Armstrong of Aquebogue, who then called 911. “It was the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.

“I’m still shaking.”

LIPA had been reporting 42 customers without power at about 1 p.m., with one or two traffic lights knocked out along 25A by the storms.

The power outage figure dropped to about 5 a half hour later, as electric was quickly restored to the area.

In an urban flood advisory issued about 1 p.m., the National Weather Service said it was tracking a series of storms “moving slowly eastward along and north of Route 25A in Suffolk County, between Smithtown and Riverhead.”

As of 1:20 p.m., Ms. Freeborn Armstrong said she was still stuck in her car in a parking lot in Rocky Point.

“The thunder, lightning, rain and hail are still fierce right now!” she wrote in a Facebook message.

She later reported the rain had stopped about 1:30 p.m., then picked up again about 2 p.m.